Brownsville Kids Raising $70K For Class Trip To Japan

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — Seventeen-year-old Fermin Nadal has never left New York or ridden an airplane before, yet this summer he hopes to leave Brownsville behind and travel across the globe to Japan.

First, he’s going to need $68,400.

“I want to meet different people and see how their lifestyle is,” said Nadal, a junior at Frederick Douglass Academy VII in Brownsville. “I’m also excited to see the train stations. It might be normal to them, but not to me.”

Fermin is one of 18 students that English teacher Bijoun Eric Jordan hopes to take on a one-week trip to Japan this July, if he can raise the money.

That's why Jordan has organized fundraising parties, art auctions, kickball games, raffles and a GoFundMe campaign — which had raised $3,524 by March 26 —and his students are working extra jobs to raise the $68,400 they need to pay for the trip.

“The reason I do it, travel is a whole different kind of education. ” Jordan said. “You’re giving someone an education that alters who they are.”

The A.P. Literature teacher has been dreaming of a seven-year, seven-continent tour since he returned from his first international class trip to Spain, made possible by GoFundMe donors who kicked in $40,000 in 2017.

The students who went came back changed, he said.

“They walk a little differently, there’s an extra confidence, a little twinkle in the eye,” said Jordan. “It comes from having done something adventurous and unique.”

Javon Carlos, 17, almost didn’t go to Spain last year, not just because money was tight, but because he’d never been on an airplane before and was terrified of heights.

But Jordan convinced Carlos it would be worth it to face his fear, and a fellow junior — Idulnejia Rutledge— promised she’d sit next to him during the take-off.

“It was kind of a hard decision,” said Carlos. “But I just sat next down to Idulnejia and tried to be manly.”

It was small things — such as trying calamari for the first time and seeing the throne at the Royal Palace of Madrid — that made the trip worth it, Carlos said.

“It made me willing to try more new things and to meet new people,” said Carlos. “I’m not always the best at that.”

When Carlos returned to school, he decided to face a new challenge and is now the head of the basketball team.

Javon is a big part of why Jordan is trying to raise money online, he said. As much as Carlos’ mother wants him to go to Japan, she can’t afford to pay his senior dues and the $600 Jordan asks every student to pitch in.

But it’s also for Rutledge, 18, who once hated trying new foods and now wants to study business at Mohawk Valley Community College so she can open a restaurant with her grandma.

It’s for Chauncey Paul, 17, who’s been taking extra lifeguard shifts and giving kids swimming lessons at the Pacplex sports complex pool so he can, “leave his comfort zone and see the world.”

It’s for Gregory Henry, 17, who saw “different buildings by this guy called Gaudi” in Barcelona and now wants to be fluent in Spanish.

It's for Nadal, who's never left New York, and loves taking pictures and collecting Pokémon.

And it’s for all the students at Frederick Douglass Academy VII who come from “one of the toughest parts of Brooklyn” and who don’t know what Jordan knows, that their neighborhood is rooting for them.

“This is something that comes from people in their community,” said Jordan, noting that last year 1,061 donors funded the trip to Spain. “It was a campaign of the people.”

“It sends the students a new kind of message,” said Jordan. “That their crowd is the United States.”

The eight-day tour includes stops at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Matsumoto Castle in Nagano a tour of Takayama’s Old City, and plenty of sushi and tempura. To help the students get there, visit GoFundme.com.

Photos by Kathleen Culliton